Ohio's Republican senators, Jon Husted and Bernie Moreno, are calling on the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to collect billions of dollars in unpaid tariffs from Chinese solar panel manufacturers. They argue these companies exploited a Biden-era tariff moratorium, which a federal court later found to be unlawful, to avoid paying import duties.
In 2022, the Biden administration implemented a temporary pause on tariffs for solar panels originating in Southeast Asia. However, many of these panels contained components from Chinese corporations. In August 2025, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that the legal basis used for this pause was not applicable to solar panels, rendering it unlawful.
Senators Husted and Moreno stated in a May letter to DHS that the moratorium amounted to a "unilateral tariff giveaway" that allowed Chinese solar manufacturers to circumvent U.S. anti-dumping duty orders. They contend that the total unpaid duties, which they estimate to be billions of dollars, are owed to the U.S. Treasury, with the majority coming from Chinese state-backed companies that allegedly used the pause to flood the U.S. market with artificially inexpensive solar products.
"China has a strategy. They have state-subsidized business sectors, solar panels being one of them, in which they want to flood the global market, put everyone out of business, and then you're completely reliant on China for generation of energy that is connected to your electric grid, which can create instability around the globe," Sen. Husted told Fox News Digital. "They want dominance. They want to weaken America. They want to weaken the rest of the world by subsidizing these solar companies."
The senators highlighted that the four countries covered by the tariff pause—Malaysia, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam—are home to Chinese solar manufacturers accused of attempting to bypass U.S. trade laws. These nations accounted for 84% of solar panel imports to the United States in late 2023.
Sen. Husted estimated that Chinese companies owe the United States $67 billion in tariff payments stemming from the voided moratorium. He cited an internal review by Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which operates under DHS, that reportedly found "not a single entry admitted under the moratorium legitimately qualified for relief."
Their letter claims CBP possesses the "statutory authority" to "issue retroactive bills of duty plus interest." Sen. Husted expressed confidence in the DHS's ability to enforce the law and hold these companies accountable.
A DHS spokesperson confirmed receipt of the senators' letters and stated that the agency would respond through official channels. The senators are requesting that CBP publicly release its internal review, issue retroactive bills to the companies that benefited from the pause, and disclose the amounts owed by each importer.
The senators argued that enforcing these obligations is crucial for "fairness, rule of law, and the credibility of U.S. trade enforcement," and to counter efforts by China to flood U.S. markets with subsidized products.